Tag: New York

1940 US Census, courtesy of Ancestry.com. Click on the image to view a larger copy.

Work at my day job and some personal web development projects in my spare time have kept me away from genealogy work for a couple of months. But, when I read in the news that Ancestry.com just published its index today for New York state 1940 US Census records, I had to hop online and search for my grandfather — Michael John Flanagan — by name.

And there he was. Listed on Enumeration District 15-61, Sheet No. 5 B, for Collins Township, New York, on April 25, 1940. Right on line 56. Living in the Buckley home, listed as a lodger, at the farm on Lennox Road.

Thomas “Pa” and Mary “Ma” Buckley, my grandfather’s foster parents.

I already knew that my grandfather was fostered out from the orphan home to the Buckley family as a young child. Grandpa told us many stories about his Buckley foster family, and he deeply loved his older foster brother Uncle Verne and sister-in-law Aunt Edna (whom I met as a baby and young child). Verne and Edna are listed in the adjacent home, with their 7 month old daughter Edna “Edo”. Verne and Edna were really more like parents to my grandpa than a brother and sister-in-law…but that’s another story.

My joy at finding Grandpa on the census is mixed with much sadness though.

Despite living with the Buckleys since he was a toddler, whichever family member spoke to the Census worker (most likely, Mary “Ma” Buckley) referred to my grandfather simply as a “lodger” — not a son or brother, not a foster son or foster brother, not even a ward. A “lodger”. Like young Michael lived there by choice, temporarily. The Buckleys never adopted my grandfather. He remained an orphan his entire life, and he never really had any sense of family until he married my grandmother and had children of their own.

Grandpa (top right), later in life with older foster brother (Verne) and sister-in-law (Edna)  and nieces that he absolutely adored. Verne and Edna and their children showered my Grandpa with love, providing him with his only sense of family as a child and young man.

It also saddens me to see that Grandpa was the only Flanagan boy living with the Buckleys by April 1940. I know through the orphan records, and from family recollections, that at least one or two of Grandapa’s older brothers were also placed into foster care with the Buckleys — including Michael’s brother Patrick, who was just one year older than Grandpa. Yet, Patrick (who would have only been 13) and the other brothers are not listed as part of this household. Family members tell me that the other boys all ran away, numerous times. But, Grandpa was too little to take with them. So, he got left behind.

And this was the start of how Grandpa became separated from his brothers.  And all alone.

I get choked up every time I think about this because my grandfather — a soft-hearted loving prankster of a man who doted on his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren — never quit suffering from the hurt of his childhood. He never knew a sense of family growing up. He never felt wanted as a child.

But, at least Grandpa felt wanted and loved and adored as a husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather..and he died knowing this.

The 1930 U.S. Census. Enumeration District 15-173, Sheet No. 2A. Buffalo (Erie) New York. (Source: Ancestry.com)

This post is a part of a “Genealogical Inspirations” series I am writing — sharing my own early personal genealogy milestones — to commemorate the public release of the 1940 U.S. Census on April 2nd.

In my last post, I mentioned how my grandfather, Michael John Flangan, was orphaned at a very young age (never adopted), separated from his brothers, and spent much of his adult life trying to find answers about his family history. Grandpa died in 1997; I didn’t take up family research until 2001.

Because my grandfather knew so little about his family, he didn’t leave behind the documents and clues so many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren benefit from when researching their family history. He also didn’t have a lot of pertinent family stories, names, and places verbally passed down to his children. And my grandmother – who kept the family records — passed away well before Grandpa. None of Michael’s kids knew where a copy of Michael’s birth certificate might be.

All my mother could tell me was that Grandpa was born in Buffalo, and that she thought his father was named John or Patrick (not an unusual first name among Flanagans…needle in a haystack). We knew he had an older brother named Patrick, because Uncle Pat moved out to the Los Angeles area later in life to be near his newly re-found brother Mike.

That was it.

That’s all I had to start with for research leads.

Do a search in any genealogy database for Michael Flanagan, Patrick Flanagan, or John Flanagan in Buffalo, New York, and you’ll see what I was up against.

I vividly remember when the 1930 U.S. Census came out back in April 2002, because I lived and breathed on Ancestry when they first published a digitized indexed version. I’d done the math and realized that the 1930 Census was the first one taken after Grandpa was born. I spent many nights digging through more needles in a haystack — far too many young Michael and Patrick Flanagans in the Buffalo area still. So then I started cross-referencing both Michael (Mike) and Patrick (Pat) in my searches, and reviewing ages for families that had sons with each name, because I knew that Grandpa and Uncle Pat couldn’t be more than maybe 5 or 6 years apart.

This approach definitely helped filter in on a smaller set of results. But, one very odd search result kept coming up near the top of the list every single time I tried it, and I kept dismissing it because the census entry for Michael and Patrick showed their relationship to the head of household as “Inmate”. Inmate? I’d never heard of Grandpa serving time in jail, especially as a child.  I noticed that every name on that particular census sheet was listed as an Inmate. And every single name entered was a minor.

Then it hit me.

Finally.

I remembered from my History studies that orphans, at this time, were frequently referred to as inmates. So, I scrolled to the top of that particular census sheet where it lists the Institution name (if applicable). And there it was — the German Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum. Every single enumerated individual on this sheet was a resident of an orphanage.

I scrolled back down to the entry for Michael Flanagan (line 34), 3 years and 10 months old. Right underneath was a Patrick Flanagan, 4 years and 9 months old. And when I looked more closely at the family grouping, I noticed three more youth males: Joseph (age 13), Leonard (age 12), and Harry (age 9).

More brothers?

Grandpa had THREE older brothers, in addition to Uncle Pat.

The 1930 US Census listing for Grandpa Mike and his brothers (click the image to view a larger version). Source: Ancestry.com.

I distinctly recall it being past 10:00pm (when Mom used to go to bed), but I called her anyways and woke her up — I knew how much this discovery would mean to her. She immediately started crying when I told her what I’d found — my decision to wake her up had been the right one. Mom, too, was surprised to hear about three more brothers. She said she was never really sure if Grandpa had siblings in addition to Uncle Pat, because Grandpa had so few memories of his early childhood.

While corresponding via email with my mom’s oldest sister a few years later, my aunt told me that she had been aware of the other boys’ names; but she wasn’t sure if they were all full brothers, half-brothers, or step-brothers.

One brick wall busted down.

The 1930 U.S. Census was the very first genealogical document that put me on the right path to tracking down Grandpa’s family history.  It gave me names and ages of my grandfather’s brothers, and it gave me the name and address of his orphanage. That was enough to inspire me to keep digging.

I eagerly and anxiously await the April 2nd release of the 1940 Census so that I can find out where all five boys were living in April 1940, because I do know now that they were no longer all together by that date. So, until the 1940 Census gets fully indexed, I’ll have to focus on the Enumeration Districts for Buffalo, and for the nearby farm town in which my grandfather’s foster family lived.